


A Measure of Peace

by jujitsuelf



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 16:37:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/968191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujitsuelf/pseuds/jujitsuelf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt fill for - The Avengers - any - Finding peace</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Measure of Peace

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer – All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended
> 
> ***
> 
> Prompt left by peaceful_sands at fic_promptly

“That’s my secret, Cap. I’m always angry,” Bruce Banner once said.

It was true, anger burned away at him night and day as it had since that cursed gamma radiation destroyed his life. But somehow, even in anger there is a measure of peace.

Sometimes the most furious of the Other Guy’s rages was simply a child’s frustration wrapped around a core of calm, serene nothingness. Destroying things was a way of releasing that frustration, when enough of it had escaped, like steam forced through the spout of a kettle, peace was easier to come by.

The day Bruce first felt it, he was on the edge of an abyss, looking down into an ever-deepening well of despair. The Other Guy had taken over again and Bruce hated the helplessness which came with Hulk’s fury and made him a prisoner inside his own body.

But even as he watched his, or rather, Hulk’s huge fists smash into rock and shatter mountainsides as though they were no more substantial than tissue paper, the most bizarre feeling stole over him. It was almost...peaceful, there was no other word to describe it. Bruce sat quietly and waited for the Other Guy’s anger to fade, slowly clawing back bits of his human mind, an atom at a time.

Somehow, accepting the inevitable and not fighting Hulk made the ever-present throbbing in his head fade slightly. Bruce didn’t want to be the Other Guy, he hated it when he lost control and had to sit there and watch the wanton destruction Hulk’s fury created. But maybe if he worked on hating it a little less when it was actually happening, things might just be slightly better for him.

He didn’t bother trying to explain to people exactly how he managed to maintain such control and keep the Other Guy under wraps for long periods of time. They wouldn’t understand what he meant if he said the purity and peace within Hulk’s anger made it easier for him to relax and take back the control which Hulk stole.

So he smiled and breathed and fended off Stark’s ham-handed attempts to understand him. Yoga? Seriously? Stark wasn’t fool enough to believe that meditation would keep the Other Guy under lock and key, was he?

When the time came to release Hulk and actually allow his destructive tendencies to do some good, Bruce did so with a grin. He might always be angry, but it didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t at peace.


End file.
